Originally Posted by
acarney
Ya, I'm really surprised AS hasn't set up a training program where they cover the cost of training if a pilot signs and flys with them for 5 years or something. I'm surprised they haven't partnered with some large school to provide the planes and help cut costs and overhead on that so the bills are already lower to start with. If you have a crushing debt training issue you step in there and fix the problem as much as regulations will allow AND you court your pilots from the get go.
You might still need some pay pay raises but probably much less then out right trying to hire them in droves away from other airlines.
There's been some talk of that, but it's not practical. They'd be paying for their flight time, and most likely some sort of living allowance (can't have a job if you have to go flying around in a single engine piston plane in circles all day) over several years while they gain those worthless hours of flying. There is no industry on earth that operates like that. Most likely scenario is that potential pilots go overseas to fly for some company, at least then they'd be helping to generate income. That also has the benefit of having actual usable experience. You get about 200-400 hours of flight time in a small piston powered aircraft and no additional time is really going to benefit you in flying a turbine powered aircraft.
Other oversea airlines do have pilot training programs that get you from zero hours to the right seat. The contract required is generally over 10 years (I think something like 20 seems about right) and they don't have the pay increases like the US has/had (which will probably be going away with higher starting pay for the majors). So, overall it's less cost out of pocket for the employee, but over the course of their career they'd be making far less money than if they had been able to not be locked into a contract.
If you want to be mad or upset because your flight was cancelled. Be mad at congress. If you care about how much pilots make, consider that there have now been several years worth of college grads who lost their dream of becoming an airline pilot since it's not attainable anymore.